Incidence of hepatitis non-A, non-B compared with types A and B in hospital patients.
To establish the relative frequencies of types A, B and non-A, non-B hepatitis, stored samples of blood from all the cases of acute viral hepatitis seen over a period of 9 years in a general hospital for adults were classified according to their type by presently available serologic methods. The study included 456 episodes of hepatitis in 447 patients, distributed as follows: 114 episodes of hepatitis A (25%), 282 of hepatitis B (62%) and 60 of hepatitis non-A, non-B (13%). The episodes of non-A, non-B hepatitis were equally distributed between the sexes, suggesting a mode of transmission different from that of hepatitis A or B, which had male/female ratios of 2.4 and 3.1 respectively. The low proportion of hepatitis non-A, non-B may not reflect its real frequency, since it often escapes clinical recognition.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012698:Serologic Tests; D012737:Sex Factors